"I force people to have coffee with me, just because I don't trust that a friendship can be maintained without any other senses besides a computer or cellphone screen"
-John Cusack
I woke today, and made my pilgrimage to the shiny black and silver machine in my kitchen as I do every morning. I made an americano...my usual. As I sip I have to say coffee has changed. I've had a special relationship with coffee for quite some time. I worked at Starbucks when You've Got Mail was in the theaters, and I met the woman who I've carried on a romance with since back then.
My soul patch is long gone, and with it my extensive collection of khaki's and black polo’s. That woman has been my wife for over ten years now. Now Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks...that Internet thing that they used to create a New York romance well that sure was successful, even if AOL's dominance of it was not.
The young man in with the cool facial hair, he shudders at what I'm about to tell you. I have tasted all the home gadgets, and the best home coffee comes from the makers of Nescafe. Nestle has been retailing their system in Europe for many years. Five years ago I bought my first Nespresso machine, and while I cringe when I buy pods, it keeps me out of the coffee shops. It wakens me, and brings me flavors from exotic places far away. It's clean and simple.
If you weren't a coffee shop fan in the nineties, you missed something. There was a magic to coffee shops, a magic that isn't there anymore. Watch You've Got Mail. Laugh at the technology, and remember the magic. Where did it go?
The coffee still works. It surprises and delights me. It fuels the side of me that is going to make what he wants out of this world. Now excuse me my cup is empty, again.